Kimberly Briley
Expert visual designer and problem solver working in school marketing for 8 years. Proactive, imaginative, meticulous. Pro level with InDesign and spreadsheets.
• Branding Coordinator (graphic designer) at Fort Worth Independent School District, Strategic Communications Department, 2022-current. Previously freelanced for the District, 2016-2022.
Fort Worth ISD is a large urban school district in Texas with 75K students, 140 schools, 11K staff.
• Freelance designer since 2012: education, non-profit, agriculture, small business branding.
• Montessori preschool teacher 2011-2015, then I left to design full-time.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Visualization
Texas A&M University, College of Architecture, College Station TX, 2009
The program has changed quite a bit, but back then it was a mix of architecture (history, design, and hand-drawing/CAD), 2D and 3D design studios, computer modeling and animation, a study-abroad semester to study even more architecture in Germany, and some art electives to round things out - including Graphic Design and Film Studies. Read more on TAMU's site.
Memorial Student Center Visual Arts Committee
• Chair, senior year
• Art Resources Executive, junior year
We operated a small art gallery in the MSC to bring new art exposure opportunities to the student body and hosted an arthouse film series. I attended the MSC's annual Leadership Conference and, as Chair, met weekly with the Arts & Entertainment Programming Council to present new programs for approval, led our committee meetings, inspected artwork for insurance purposes, and guided committee members in installations and deinstallations.
Skills
Tools
• InDesign expert (seriously)
• Illustrator
• Photoshop
• Other Adobe: Fresco, Express, Acrobat
• Excel and Google Sheets super-user
• Google Docs, Word, and Powerpoint template expert
• HTML website editing, Dreamweaver, Wordpress, Sharepoint, experience with many website builders
• HTML email / mass communication design using various platforms
• Premiere occasionally when needed (would love to get back into this more often)
• Confidence to learn any new program very quickly
• College work was all done using 3ds Max, Premiere, Flash, AutoCAD, SketchUp, MAX MSP, and other programs I don't have access to anymore or have a need for currently, but can translate that knowledge to future projects.
I'm good at:
• Managing large amounts of files and data
Ex: I created a new PDF guide with branding for 140 schools in the same document, pulling information from a mix of spreadsheets and Illustrator files with correctly organized artboards. InDesign + Google Sheets + Illustrator. In the past, I've managed nearly identical flyers and printed materials for all schools, pulling in information from spreadsheets that update when the spreadsheet changes.
• Finding creative solutions to problems, re-contextualizing a client's requests in a way that will be more effective for the end user
• Campaign concepts, story telling, art directing, offering direction and feedback
Three successful Bond/tax rate elections, general school enrollment campaigns and for Pre-K and choices programming, ad concepts, billboards, promo books.
• Consistent branding and brand management for organizations and programs
• Digital illustration and vectors
Fast and efficient with Illustrator, creating custom icons and mascots, fixing bad vectors.
• Web design
• Infographics, charts, quick guides, anything to display information in a more easily digestible way
Directories: My all-schools spreadsheet feeds to a public-facing school directory that updates automatically. I volunteered my skills to a local organization to create a directory of local businesses that fed to both a Google map and to an InDesign file / interactive PDF with clickable icon links to all businesses' social pages.
Infographics: I can make very beautiful designs in Illustrator or InDesign, but also have extensive experience making great-looking custom graphics staying within Microsoft/Excel, which is the best practice wherever possible.
• Annual Reports, big nitty-gritty documents
• Using InDesign and Acrobat to create accessible forms
• Lightroom and photo editing
• Event branding and planning, signage, invitations and direct mail, programs, print and digital materials
• Designing user-friendly templates and teaching/guiding non-designers on best practices using their common toolsUsually Word, PPT, Google products, Adobe Express. Heavy emphasis on using Styles and setting up Master Slides correctly.
• Copy editing, and I can write when needed
• And all the other things:
Web and social graphics, emails, brochures, flyers, postcards, vehicle wraps, posters, maps, catalogs, mascots, logos, etc.
Soft Skills
• Left + Right brained (I'm a math person!)
• Extremely fast
• Analytical, strategic, deliberative, intentional with actions, anticipate future project issues
• Independent problem solver
• Hyper detail-oriented
• Initiator, pushing myself and my colleagues to pursue bigger goals
• Clear and direct communicator
• Personable, kind, conscientious
Working on:
• Photography
• Spanish
• After Effects
Awards
Texas School Public Relations Association (TSPRA)
• Gold Star, 2021. Image/Identity Package: Fort Worth ISD Tax Rate Election Campaign
• Gold Star, 2020. Advertisement - Other: Gold Seal Programs and Schools of Choice Ads
• Gold Star, 2018. Silver Star, 2017 & 2016: Fort Worth ISD JROTC Promotional Books
National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA)
• Award of Excellence, 2021. Branding/Image Package: FWISD Tax Rate Election Campaign
Other
• Best in Show: Artfest, Texas A&M University Visual Arts Committee, 2008. Katrina, 2:49 looped video.
• President’s Endowed Scholar: Texas A&M University, 2004
• National Merit Scholar, 2004
Hobbies
• Knitting, sewing, mending
• Spending time outdoors
• Thinking about food all the time, making ferments and kimchi
• Urban farming
I did several organic farm internships right after college, worked at a plant nursery for a few years, and edited/designed/self-published a gardening book in 2016. In 2021 I volunteered as an advisor for a community garden to help them get started.
• DIY music and art
Heavily involved from 2014-2019, now retired from event production, but it was fun!
• NOT lecturing people about the Enneagram anymore
I'm a 5!